Reviewing Bing from Back to Front

NEWS ANALYSIS: Your search for the best search program should start with privacy.

"What about that Bing
program from Microsoft?" is the question of the week from people I speak
with both in person and virtually. They want to know: Is the interface easier (than
one line?), are the results better, and is Google really running as scared as
The New York Post claims?
In answer to those questions
I'd say the interface is about the same; the results are better for local,
shopping and video; and Google should be more concerned about not having a full
quiver of social net(Twitter) search tools than about Microsoft's latest search
competitor.

But, with any new search
tool, the real question concerns privacy. We Web searchers-which is just about
everybody these days-put a lot of faith in the big tech companies with which we
do our search business. I always find it a bit strange that we can be quick to
demand new tougher legislation regarding digital security of our financial
records, but we leave the administration of our search records pretty much to
faith that big tech execs will do the right thing.

Self-promotion ahead: I
wrote a novel once-Red's Query, available
on Amazon-about what could happen if search histories were manipulated, and I
still think it is a legitimate issue. I am in the "Trust but verify"
category with vendors taking care of our search results. What follows is my
five-question quiz about Bing. Score 20 points for each correct answer.

A. Eighteen months. "We
take additional steps to protect the privacy of stored search information by
removing the entirety of the IP address, cookies and other cross session
identifiers, after 18 months."

Q. Does Bing store your
search identification (cookies, mostly) and your identity in the same place?

A. No. "We store our
Search service search terms (and the cookie IDs associated with search terms)
separately from any account information that directly identifies the user, such
as name, e-mail address, or phone numbers. Further, we have built-in
technological and procedural safeguards designed to prevent the unauthorized
correlation of this data."

Q. What about cashback? That
is new in Bing. How is your search information handled in Bing cashback?

A. This is a little more
complicated. There is a closed loop between you, Bing, a vendor and sales
accounting. This is one area that needs some more clarification about rights,
responsibilities and who owns the sales data. "When you sign up for Bing
cashback, we will request certain registration information, including your
email address, your mailing address, and other personal information, to create
a Bing cashback account. We use this information to make sure that the cashback
you earn on your purchases is correctly added to your cashback account. When
you make a purchase, the store will provide us details about your purchase, and
we will email you an accounting of your cashback savings. In the future, we
might also use your purchase information to help personalize your experience,
which might include displaying customized advertising and content. You can
revise your account information by accessing your cashback account."

Q. Is Bing better or worse
than Google in privacy attributes?

A. This is not as easy to
answer as it might seem. The policies are somewhat similar (Google makes IP
addresses anonymous after nine months and cookies after 18 months), and you can
read all about Google privacy policies for its many services at its privacy
center. In the end, as I said at the beginning, you are mostly relying on a policy
and faith that the policy will be implemented without error by the vendor.
I'm still in the "trust
but verify" camp.

And now for something
completely different. Want to see my comments on the emerging smarter
technologies you should be following in 2009? Or how about some tech executives
that I think are making waves? Or how smarter innovative ideas are being
developed from common services? See my blog entries at http://www.smartertechnology.com/.

Since 1996, Eric Lundquist has been Editor in Chief of eWEEK, which includes domestic, international and online editions. As eWEEK's EIC, Lundquist oversees a staff of nearly 40 editors, reporters and Labs analysts covering product, services and companies in the high-technology community. He is a frequent speaker at industry gatherings and user events and sits on numerous advisory boards. Eric writes the popular weekly column, 'Up Front,' and he is a confidant of eWEEK's Spencer F. Katt gossip columnist.